Mayberry helps Phillies zone in on win

Jimmy Rollins follows through on his two-run home run against the Marlins in the fifth inning of Tuesday’s game in Miami. A.J. Burnett scored on the home run and the Phillies hung on to win, 6-5. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

MIAMI — The cooler went flying across the dugout, as A.J. Burnett definitely didn’t like that his night had to end after five innings, and probably didn’t like that home-plate umpire Will Little’s minor-league quality strike zone had helped make his first inning a long, arduous grind.

Burnett was replaced by John Mayberry Jr. as a pinch-hitter that inning, and maybe Burnett owed that cooler an apology. That’s because Mayberry delivered a two-out, two-run single that provided big insurance runs as the Phillies extended their winning streak to three games with a 6-5 win over Miami at Marlins Park Tuesday night.

Burnett, who has struggled in May after a run of five straight quality starts, still did enough to get his 150th career win. He just wished it didn’t have to come with the B-word.

“I’m tired of hearing the word, ‘battle,’ but it’s the truth so you have to say it,” said Burnett, who was at 96 pitches when he got the hook. “That’s what the past couple of games have been – battles. I’ve been able to make a pitch or two to minimize the damage, that’s really all I can say.”

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Two of the three runs he allowed came in the first inning, as he made a two-strike pitches that he thought deserved to get Giancarlo Stanton and Casey McGehee rung up, but instead led to a walk and single up the middle by the two.

“It makes you wonder how many years you have to pitch to get a call,” Burnett said of his first inning trials, which included walking Giancarlo Stanton after thinking he had rung up the slugger on a two-strike fastball that painted the corner.

Burnett wasn’t the only guy annoyed with Little’s zone. After Adieny Hechavarria was rung up on a pitch by reliever Jake Diekman that seemed high and inside in the sixth, Marlins manager Mike Redmond griped and was quickly tossed by Little. That led to a retro, Earl Weaver-style tantrum by Redmond as he kicked dirt around the batter’s box and had to be separated from the umpire.

Redmond, who used to catch Burnett when both were playing for the Marlins, impressed his former teammate with his outburst.

“I knew he wasn’t going to last long,” Burnett said. “I played with Mike, and he has some fire in him. It was both ways.”

Between the angst both sides seemed to have with the zone, Jimmy Rollins continued to cement his position atop the Phillies’ lineup. In his fourth straight game batting leadoff, Rollins went 2-for-4 with a walk and a two-run home run in the fifth that turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 advantage.

He’s in a nice groove with what he’s doing at the plate – being patient, the whole works,” Ryne Sandberg said of Rollins. “He’s doing well in that leadoff spot right now.”

Burnett set Rollins up for that bomb off Miami rookie Anthony DeSclafani by driving a double into the right-center field gap.

Maybe that’s why he wasn’t happy about getting pulled for a pinch hitter the next inning.

At least Mayberry made the switch work out. Mayberry, who has three hits in his last five at-bats after going 1-for-23 from April 8 to May 16, extended the one-run lead to three, making Brad Hand pay for intentionally walking Tony Gwynn Jr.

“Mayberry has been swinging a pretty good bat the last three or four games,” Sandberg said. “He came up big in the pinch. It worked out well.”

It was the type of padding the bullpen needed in order to get through four innings of work. Diekman took half of those on, working scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh.

However, Mike Adams was against the ropes in the eighth, as a walk, and a pair of hits by left-handed hitters Garrett Jones and Jarrod Saltalamacchia (who got second life when Cody Asche dropped a foul pop) led to a run. However, Adams bounced back with a pair of strikeouts and wiggled out of the jam by getting pinch-hitter Reed Johnson to ground out harmlessly.

That gave Jonathan Papelbon a two-run lead to protect, and he had half of that get away from him when Jones dropped a soft, shallow fly in front of Gwynn in center field for a two-out RBI single. With the tying run at third base, Papelbon got Saltalamacchia to hit a similar ball – except this one hung up long enough for Gwynn to park under it and give Papelbon his 12th save of the season.